Media Specialists
October 9-October 15, 2013

Find the latest educational resources from Iowa Public Television.

A Hurried Escape
Grades: 9-12

In this video segment from the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Professor Henry Louis Gates reveals to Margaret Cho why her father's family fled what is now North Korea. Cho's grandfather worked for the Japanese during their occupation of Korea. After the Japanese withdrew from Korea after World War II, Cho's grandfather was considered a traitor. To ensure the safety of his family, Cho's grandfather and his family left their home in North Korea and moved to South Korea.

Acting in Vocal Performance

Grades: 6-12

A young performer is preparing a well-known and challenging song in this video adapted from Broadway or Bust. She works with a coach to find a successful way to connect to the song and accommodate her type of voice and temperament. He suggests specific ideas to think about while singing and uses a scene partner to help her build the interpretation.

Promoting School-wide Literacy at the Elementary Level I

Grades: PreK-5

Principal Dewey Hensley discusses the literacy initiatives that have dramatically improved the scores-as well as the culture-in what was previously a low-performing school in a high-poverty area of Louisville, Kentucky.

�Arte y M�s! Singing the Colors (Cantando los colores)
Grade Range: PreK-3

Se�ora Alicia and Susana greet each other and sing the song, Colores. Inviting students to sing along, Se�ora Alicia, Susana, and students sing it again adding marr�n (brown) and rosado (pink) to the end of the song.

This video was adapted from �Arte y m�s!, originally produced by KET as a complete curriculum for primary-level Spanish based on arts and humanities content. Spanish teachers can use these resources in traditional or online instruction to reinforce language acquisition and teach about Latin American culture.

Finding the Intersection
Grade Range: 4-8

In this video segment from Cyberchase, the CyberSquad is looking for a lost Transformatron. Matt can see it along one line, while Jackie says she can see it along a different line. Digit and Inez try to figure out how this is possible, and they discover that one point can lie on two different lines.

Inquiry-Based: Converting Fractions to Percents

Grade Range: 9-13+

Students convert fractions to percents by creating equivalent fractions and by seeing fractions as division problems.

Ma Family History
Grade Range: 2-12

In this video segment from Faces of America, musician Yo-Yo Ma learns about his ancestors in China. Historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. also travels to China to meet with Yo-Yo Ma's distant relatives to talk about the Ma family history and more specifically, how it has been preserved in traditional Chinese texts. Gates articulates the details surrounding these texts and describes information Ma's ancestors felt necessary to preserve, such as essays, linage rules, moral guidelines, poems and short biographies.

Abraham Lincoln, Attorney at Law
Grade Range: 1-12

In this video segment excerpted from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin examine Lincoln's years as a "prairie" lawyer on the Illinois circuit, and discuss how they honed and polished Lincoln's confidence, sense of fairness, and social skills.

Ratio and Proportional Reasoning: Food Labels
Grade Range: 5-8

In this blended lesson supporting literacy skills, students watch videos and complete interactive activities to learn how to use fractions to interpret food labels and make healthy eating choices. Students develop their literacy skills as they explore a mathematics focus on proportional reasoning. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities.

Teen Fights for Toxic Waste Cleanup
Grade Range: 9-12

In this video adapted from Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative, New York student Shadia Wood tells how she became an environmental activist. Wood lives near several toxic waste sites and was concerned to learn that the New York Superfund-the money set aside for cleaning such sites in her state-had gone bankrupt. Working with other students and environmental groups, Wood lobbied the New York legislature for eight years until the Superfund program was refinanced. Environmentalist Laura Haight says that this law was the most important environmental law passed in New York State in a decade.

Getting an Education
Grade Range: 6-12

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, uses reenactment footage to chronicle the education of Percy Julian, the African American chemist who pioneered the development of synthetic hormones. Julian's early educational years paralleled an educational movement that prepared African Americans for industrial jobs, the growing white supremacist movement, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Julian would eventually move north, and finally to Europe to earn his Ph.D.

Immigration Debate
Grade Range: 6-12

Stacey Delikat reports from Arizona about their 2010 immigration law and the national debate that has ensued because of it.

Erosion
Grade Range: 6-12

Do you know the difference between erosion and deposition? This video, shot at the Indian Kill Preserve just north of Schenectady, New York, explains both processes in vivid detail.

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